Predictable, unconvincing but nevertheless I really enjoyed it. Recommended to big romantics ! ( )

From my librarytart blog: http://librarytart.wordpress.com/2008...

50-word description
Jane and John are single and jaded thirty-somethings. They lock eyes at a wedding and end up grappling and shedding clothes in a cloak room but John stops in an effort to change old habits. Instead, they agree to get to know each other by confessing their emotional and relationship histories through pen-and-paper correspondence.

150-word review
I loved the concept of this book in a Wow, I wish I’d thought of that idea way, commonly known as envy, I believe.

The book starts insightfully with the protagonists’ jaded attitudes towards love and their distracted attempt to have sex, however, awkwardness quickly infiltrates the pages. The premise of the pair confessing their emotional pasts with the freedom of being relative strangers becomes stifled, as if they are writing one-way news stories rather than searching for meaning or context within their own or the other’s life.

Two other flaws haunt the book: John’s decision to not have sex with Jane because he might like her rankles of a Madonna/whore mindset; and the plot’s movement is slow and lacks anchor points as if reading a diary with few dates or events to mark time.

Everything wraps up nicely and I was left wondering what could have been if some substantial sentences of wisdom had firmer structure and plot to support them.

Found in
Fiction A

Borrowed
Dec 08

Rating
Unrealised potential ( )

I liked this a ton, and think the collaboration worked wonderfully. The story opens on a failed wedding reception hookup between Jane and John. The two, who live in different states, decide to get to know one another through confessions they'll send back and forth through the mail. Except for the first and last chapters, the entire novel is made up of this correspondence. The premise sounds too cute, but the execution was really interesting and unexpected.

This book was devastating. That's overly dramatic, I know. But several passages, especially from Jane's letters, could have been ripped from my head, word for word. It's hard to see thoughts and feelings exactly like my own, laid bare on the page. The confessions are wonderful and terrible, and I believed in these two broken, sad people trying to make a connection. The final chapter let me down just a tiny bit, but don't let that stop you from trying this one out.

Too many of the situations were farfetched and unbelievable. Just not my kind of book. ( )

An interesting idea, but it never engaged me.

I much prefer Steve Almond's short story collection, "My Life In Heavy Metal"--review and excerpts here:
http://www.readforpleasure.com/2007/0... ( )